Police raid TV station over ‘terror propaganda,’ cut broadcast

Police raid TV station over ‘terror propaganda,’ cut broadcast

ISTANBUL

Turkish police raided the offices of broadcaster imc TV and cut its transmission on Oct. 4, after the station was pulled off the air last week over allegations of “spreading terrorist propaganda.”

The raid was carried out while imc TV was live on air, as it was reporting on the sealing of the broadcast room of Hayatın Sesi TV, another TV channel that was taken off the air last week as part of the government’s continuing crackdown on alternative media outlets. Engineers working with the Turkish state physically removed cables from the control room to ensure all broadcasts were cut.

Dozens of journalists and employees stood inside the TV studios and applauded in protest at the halt of the broadcast, which came a day after Turkey extended a state of emergency for another three months.

“Free media will not be silenced,” chanted the staff in the building, while applauding their management.

Istanbul-based imc TV is among 20 television and radio stations that were banned last week by Turkish authorities, based on a state of emergency decree.

It had already been taken off air by Turkey’s largest satellite operator on the grounds of broadcasting “terrorist propaganda.” But the television broadcaster had remained on air until Oct. 4 through the Hotbird satellite and internet broadcasts.

Internet transmissions were subsequently disabled although viewers could still catch the channel’s final moments broadcast by the employees on their private Periscope accounts.